Beakers
by Kittyclaw
Summary: Oneshot, JxE. “Love,” Emily repeated. “It’s like science—you can’t see the reactions and stuff, but you can see the results. And my big sister calls love magic. So why can’t science be magic too?”


**I plan on using this pairing in the future, so I figured I should do a oneshot so I can start wrapping my head around it. I think Emily and Jeremy make a cute little couple. Speaking of little, this is set with everyone around the age of nine (eight for smarty pants Jeremy). This is my first time trying this pairing, so feedback is greatly appreciated!**

Sitting crouched over his chemistry set, Jeremy every so carefully tilted the plastic test tube over the lip of his beaker. The light blue liquid in the tube trickled into the beaker slowly, Jeremy leaning down low to watch as the liquid in the beaker crept upwards, past each of the little white measurement ticks on the side of the mixing cup. Narrowing his eyes, Jeremy slowed his pouring as the liquid inched closer to the half cup mark.

"Incoming!" a shrill voice shouted. Jeremy had just enough time to look up before a red rubber kickball came crashing down in the center of his carefully arranged chemistry equipment.

"No!" Jeremy shouted, as his beaker was toppled over, the carefully measured contents spilling out across the pavement of the basketball court.

"Hey, I didn't hit you, did I?" Jeremy looked up to see two of his classmates hurrying over. One of them had a spike of short yellow hair; he was the one who'd just spoken. Behind him was a boy with scruffy brown hair. Odd and Ulrich. They sat at Jeremy's table in class, although he didn't really know them all that well. They were more the rough and tumble type while Jeremy, having skipped a grade to join their third grade class, was more of an academic.

"No," Jeremy mumbled, scooping up his scattered cups and test tubes.

"Oops," Odd said, noticing the spilled liquid seeping across the pavement. "Sorry, Einstein," he said, using the nickname he'd given Jeremy when he'd first joined the class.

"It's okay," Jeremy said, not looking at the boys. "I have more."

"Do you need any help picking up?" Ulrich asked. Jeremy shook his head. "Okay," Ulrich said. "Well, do you want to come play kickball with us?" Jeremy pretended not to notice the incredulous look Odd shot his friend.

"No thank you," Jeremy declined.

"Okay then," Ulrich said, scuffing the ground lightly with his foot. "Well, umm, see you in class then."

"See you in class," Odd parroted, before snatching up his run away kickball and hurrying back to the field with Ulrich.

It wasn't until they were gone that Jeremy sniffled, blinking his eyes hard as he placed the parts of his chemistry set carefully back into the box. He'd been lying when he told Odd that he had more of the set's basic chemicals, which were supposed to be mixed together to grow a little crystal. Jeremy had been planning to give the crystal to his parents, as a thank you for the chemistry set.

Setting the lid on the box, Jeremy scooped it up and climbed to his feet, looking for a safer place to resume his work. He wandered his way across the small playground beside the court, trying to figure if the few chemicals he had left would be enough for at least a little crystal.

"Hey!" someone shouted, startling Jeremy. He looked around, trying to spot the source of the voice. "Over here," a laughing voice said, drawing Jeremy's attention over to the large tree at the far end of the playground. There was a girl he recognized from his class sitting among the tree's roots, waving for him to come over.

"Hi!" the girl chirped as Jeremy walked over to her. She grinned, adjusting glasses that were a little too big for her face. She then grabbed something lying on the ground beside her, showing it to Jeremy. It was the lid from the box of her own chemistry set, identical to Jeremy's except for the fact that it was the girl version, its crystal pink instead of blue.

"I saw what happened to your stuff," she explained. "I have extra stuff, if you need any."

"Uh, thanks," Jeremy said, as he lowered himself down on the ground next to the girl. "I'm Jeremy," he added, smiling.

"My name's Emily," Emily said, grinning brightly.

"Nice to meet you, Emily," Jeremy said politely, as he began unpacking his chemistry set.

"It's nice to meet you too, Jeremy," Emily giggled, as she handed Jeremy a few packets of the various chemical ingredients he needed, continuing to talk as she did. "I didn't know you were into doing magic."

"Magic?" Jeremy asked, taking the packets. Emily nodded, motioning to his chemistry set. "This isn't magic," Jeremy said. "This is science."

"What's the difference?" Emily asked as she lifted up her beaker to eye the pink mixture inside.

"Science is real," Jeremy responded. "You can see it and do it."

"Not all of it," Emily quipped. She pointed to her beaker. "You can't see why mixing this stuff makes crystals."

"It's because of a chemical reaction," Jeremy told her. Emily shrugged.

"But you still can't see it. Just the result. Which is how magic works." She paused for a moment, and then added, "And love."

"What?" Jeremy asked, glancing up from where he was preparing his test tubes.

"Love," Emily repeated. "It's like science—you can't see the reactions and stuff, but you can see the results. And my big sister calls love magic. So why can't science be magic too?" Jeremy opened his mouth to respond, but then hesitated, realizing a good answer wasn't coming to him.

"I don't know," he finally said. He then motioned to the contents of Emily's beaker, which were still liquid. "Aren't you going to add the powder, so it turns into a crystal?" he asked.

"I was going to wait for you," she told him. "We can add it together!"

"Oh," Jeremy said, blinking. "Okay." He hurried to finish mixing his ingredients, and then Emily held his beaker stead while he poured them all in. "Just two more," he said as he set down an empty measuring cup. He held up his packet of powder, and his test tube of dye. The blue dye had been topped up with Emily's pink, the two swirling together to form an odd, half mixed color. Jeremy gave it an uncertain look, before pouring it into his beaker.

"Crystal time," Emily announced, beaming as she poured her beaker into a shallow dish. Jeremy followed suit. "Ready?" she asked, tearing open her packet of powder. Jeremy nodded, doing the same. "One," Emily counted, leaning over her dish and preparing to pour, "…two…three!"

Jeremy and Emily poured their powder at the same time, the white specks dissolving into their colored mixtures. They leaned over their dishes, so close their noses were almost dipping into their creations as they watched the liquids solidifying and changing shape.

"They're so pretty," Emily said, as her crystal grew upwards in a shimmery pink tower. She them glanced over at Jeremy's and gasped. "Yours looks so awesome!"

Jeremy's crystal was growing outwards, like an opening flower. And, unlike Emily's solidly colored rock, Jeremy's was a mixture of blue, purple, and pink, covering the crystal in random splotches.

Blushing at the complement, Jeremy ducked his head, muttering a sheepish, "thanks."

The crystals didn't take long to grow; Jeremy and Emily were prying their new possessions from their dishes just as their teacher called them in from recess. The pair quickly packed away their things, holding their creations close as they hurried inside with the rest of their classmates. The teacher complimented the two accordingly as they showed what they'd made, and t hen shooed them off to go wash their hands after being outside.

Jeremy was just joining the line of boys going into the boy's room when a thought occurred to him—he was planning on thanking his parents for giving him the chemistry set with his crystal, so he should really thank Emily for sharing her things with him in the same way. Scampering out of the line, Jeremy checked that the teacher wasn't looking, and then scurried over to Emily's desk. He struggled a moment with his rock before he was able to break off a small piece, which he left on Emily's desk. He then joined his other classmates as they returned to their seats.

"Hey, what's that?" Odd asked as he dropped into his seat, pointing to something on Jeremy's desk.

"Huh?" Jeremy asked, following Odd's pointing finger.

A small blush blossomed on the boy's cheeks, a smile creeping across his lips as he spotted, sitting neatly on his desk, a little piece of pink crystal.


End file.
